Born in 1824 as last name Garrison eventually made it onto a fighting ship during the Mexican-American War. After striking an officer, Garrison deserted and changed his name to John Johnston but later dropped the T. The name Jeremiah Johnson was made up for the movie. John Johnson was a legendary mountain man of the Rocky Mountains, known for his rugged survival skills and fierce reputation among Native American tribes. After his wife and step-son was killed by the Crow indians, Johnson embarked on a personal vendetta, killing and eating the livers of his enemies as a form of psychological warfare. This gruesome practice earned him the moniker “Liver-Eating Johnson.”
Johnson would end up killing, scalping and consuming the livers of more than 300 Crow Indians. He was known to the Crow as “Dapiek Absaroka” translation The Killer Of Crows. He was the boogeyman of the Rocky mountains to the Indians.
Johnson’s exploits became part of Rocky Mountain folklore, symbolizing the brutal and relentless spirit of the frontier. Johnston’s life story, filled with tales of vengeance, resilience, and survival, was later popularized in the 1972 film “Jeremiah Johnson,” starring Robert Redford….
About Johnson’s Nickname
Johnson earned his terrifying nickname during an Indian fight on the Musselshell River in 1868. A fellow frontiersman named Ross, who Johnson described as “as a squeamish old man” saw him stab an Indian to death and part of the warrior’s liver came out.
Johnson teased Ross and dared him to eat some and said “it’s just as good as antelope’s liver. Have a bite! and I kind of made believe to take a bite.” Then Ross threw up his guts.
“Ross always swore after that he seen me tear a liver out of a dying Injun and eat it. But that ain’t so. I was covered in blood for shore and I had the liver on my knife, but I didn’t eat none of it. The liver coming out was unintentional on my part. But Ross vowed ’twas so and I never got rid of the name.”
Captured On His Way To Sell Whiskey to the Flathead Indians by a group of the Blackfoot warriors, Johnson was held captive in a tepee and the plan was to sell him to the Crow his arch enemy. Johnson managed to get free of the straps that bound him and lucky for Johnson the Blackfoot only stationed one brave to guard him. Johnson knocked the brave out with a kick, stole his knife, then scalped him and cut off a leg to eat before fleeing into the woods. Johnson would fend off a grizzly bear with that Indian leg. Johnson trekked more than 200 miles to his friend Del Gue’s cabin. Gue was Johnson’s trapping partner. Using that Indian leg for food might not be so far fetched back then while maybe not common was also not as uncommon as you might want to believe. Fighting off a grizzly bear with it, well I guess that’s not so unbelievable considering the other things that went on in the mountains.
Be the first to comment